KARL GEHRING/THE DENVER POST VIA GETTY IMAGES
SINKING IN
BUREAUCRACY
ity sector accounts for a third of
such emissions, and most experts
believe the necessary reductions
simply cannot be achieved without a swift transition to cleaner
sources of power.
“Our existing environmental laws and regulatory processes
no longer achieve their underlying goals of long-term ecosystem
conservation,” wrote Thaler, the
law professor at the University of
Maine. “To the contrary, these laws
and regulations are supporting a
system with increasing greenhouse
gas emissions that is actually costing trillions of dollars.”
Now that the permits have been
obtained and at least two-thirds of
the wind farm’s output has been
purchased under contract, Jim
Gordon and his partners are busy
seeking financing for Cape Wind.
They won’t comment on how much
it will cost in the end, though estimates typically run between $1
billion and $2 billion. Gordon suggested in a recent phone call that he
anticipated having turbines in the
water by 2015.
That might still be optimistic.
Grid managers have suggested
that it could take longer, and in
any case, more legal action remains a possibility.
HUFFINGTON
03.10.13
“If I knew from the very beginning that it would take 12 years and
cost as much as it did, I would have
had to think very long and hard
about accepting that challenge,”
Gordon said.
“I’ve spent 36 years of my life
developing energy projects, and our
mission has been trying to improve
the efficiency and improve the environmental attributes of these types
of projects. I was really devoted to
trying to contribute to helping transition to a cleaner energy future.
“I am where I am. I can’t look
back,” he added. “I don’t know
what I would have said 12 years ago
because I’m a different person. I’m
older. In some ways I’m wiser; in
some ways I’m not wiser. At the end
of the day, I think this is a
very important project.”
William Koch,
chairman of
the gas and
coal supplier
Oxbow
Corp., owns
property in
the area and
opposes the
Cape Wind
project.